Newsletters
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Winter/Spring, 2005
Volume 5, Issue 1
NEWS from President, Jim Schell
Well, it's that time again, folks. In OK's case anyway, that time means that its "planning and budgeting time" for the new year. For me anyway, over the forty-odd-year course of my business career, this planning and budgeting process was always one of the favorite things I'd do. Every entrepreneur loves the dreaming process - polishing up the old crystal ball, hauling out the wish list that has accumulated over the past year, and translating all those dreams and wishes into numbers in order to get a glimpse of what you can afford to do - and what you can't.
Stir the elements of that process together, and what do you get? Why you get a roadmap to follow, that's what, including a projected P & L and Balance sheet for the upcoming year.
For the hard core serial entrepreneur, I might add, this planning and budgeting process is just about as good as it gets. Sure beats the hell out of getting insurance quotes or signing payroll checks.
Susie and I cranked up our first-of-a-series of planning and budgeting meetings for 2005 last week. In preparation, we both brought along our OK wish list for the upcoming year. We were also armed with our current year's P & L, extrapolated to year's end (to give us an idea of how we will have financially managed OK this year) and our current year's Balance Sheet (to give us an idea of what we're going to be able to afford). Susie also brought along a forecasted P & L for 2005, outlining her best guess of our estimated revenues and expenditures based on what we are currently doing. The end result gives us an indication of the latitude we have in offering new, or revised programs and services to our membership for next year.
The next step in the process will be for Susie to take her, and my, wish lists and meet with her Board of Advisors. They will review it, add their ideas and input, and then she will put a price tag on everything we'd like to do. Finally, she and I will meet again in mid-December to put the finishing touches on the budget - and on our plans for 2005.
I'm sure all of you are involved in a similar planning and budgeting process for 2005 as we speak. Am I right?
Here's a short list of some of the goals Susie and I have for 2005. (This list is subject to the input of Susie's Board of Advisors and the results of our budgeting process.):
1) Host six best-practice seminars. Subjects to include:
1. real estate
issues, as they apply to small business
2. technology
options for small business owners, and
3. a mixture
of random subjects on such topics as leasing vs. buying, exit
strategy, bookkeeping systems, etc.
2) Emphasize Leadership. Everyone who owns a small business is a leader. How often in the last few years have you massaged your leadership skills? We intend to offer either a half-day seminar, or a best practices session, on the subject of leadership.
3) Start 4 new teams. (Up from 3 teams in 2004.) Achievement of this goal will require locating eight new facilitators and enrolling 48 new businesses. All in addition to continuing to backfill our 23 current teams.
4) Re-brand OK. We are in the process of contracting with Brand Navigation to upgrade OK's brand and more succinctly identify our position in the marketplace.
5) Upgrade our web site. Our web site is our brochure, both locally and nationally. It is currently eight years old and needs more than merely an oil change to get it up to speed.
6) Add administrative help. Hire a part-time assistant, allowing Susie to spend more time working with our facilitators, working with members, and manning the new teams.
7) Offer another Baldrige Quality Award Workshops for Central Oregon businesses. We currently have seven first-rate organizations enrolled in the one-year Baldrige program. We will be meeting with Jim Shaw (senior Baldrige examiner in Oregon and our local team's facilitator) to discuss ways to increase the scope of the program, both here in Central Oregon and in outside communities.
I should also mention that, in addition to providing a roadmap for your business, this planning and budgeting process serves as a motivational tool for everyone involved. Gazing into the future, and then planning for it, is a great way to get yourself, and your employees, pumped up for the upcoming year.
Several years ago at our annual meeting, I gave the attendees a "Small Business Owner Sophistication Test." Remember? The test included ten questions, and was designed to have each attendee determine where they were on the business sophistication scale. The more questions they could answer with a yes, the more sophisticated a business owner they were.
"Does your business follow a defined planning and budgeting process every year?" was one of the ten questions. Furthermore, in my humble opinion, it was one of the most important of the ten.
I strongly advise each OK member interested in developing a healthy company to adopt an annual planning and budgeting process. Sure, it requires a commitment of time and energy, but you'll never know how beneficial the process can be until you've tried it.
OK's Upcoming Best Practices
Wed, January 19, 2005
Real Estate Issues: How They Apply to Small Business
A panel presentation including topics ranging from negotiating your lease to understanding real estate terms.
Wed, February 16, 2005
Technology Solutions for Your Business
A panel presentation introducing programs and services that can benefit your business and make it run more efficiently.
Watch for email announcements with more information, or
call
318-4650 or email susie@opp-knocks.org
All Best Practices will be held from 7-9:00am at the C.O. Association of Realtors located at 2112 NE 4th St., Bend.
CENTRAL OREGON NEWS
Happy New Year to everyone! I trust all of you have your goals for the new year done and will be presenting them to your OK team members in January. I have learned that my goals continue to drive me all year long and as a result, I am a huge promoter for every OK member to have them. This year, not unlike previous years, I have a lot that I want to see happen for OK. New plans and goals are being made as I write this. Budgets are done and now we're planning 2005 and looking at other opportunities for OK. At my recent C.O. OK advisory board meeting, Lisa Clausen, who is one of our newest OK Facilitators and developer of the new Sisters Movie House, led us through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) exercise, which generated some very insightful information. One of the items that we learned was, it's time for OK to create a new marketing plan. First off, Jim and I will be meeting with Brand Navigation to reassess OK's brand. Should we continue to present ourselves as we have for the last 81/2 years or is it time to change? Since OK started, marketing efforts overall have been kept to a minimum, so to go through this assessment will be a very exciting project. We'll be letting you know what happens.
The OK Annual Survey results are still coming in, and at last count, 99% of you said OK was meeting your expectations! This is definitely great news for both Jim and myself and also gratifying for the OK facilitators to know. Survey comments included such statements as: "OK provides me with new ideas, brutal honesty and helps me to focus," "OK provides a trusting and safe environment for ideas and growth," "OK keeps me on track and on task with my business activities," "One critical issue answered makes a whole year worthwhile." OK Facilitators also received high ratings and some suggestions for them included: "Hold members accountable for attendance, promptness and following through on action items," and "Better time control in getting through the agenda." Suggestions for OK included: "Additional seminars and training," "More guest speakers," "Preferred reading list for different topics" and "Required financials." A strong majority indicated that you want the Best Practices to continue, so this year we have increased the number and the topics. Please watch your emails for the announcements on these workshops.
I hope your OK team experience continues to serve you well in 2005. I do appreciate hearing from members and facilitators with news about your group and if any changes need to be made for adding new members to your teams.
Speaking of new members…the OK Membership Drive Contest will run from January 1 this year and will end this fall at the OK Annual Meeting. So, anytime throughout the year if you make a referral, we'll enter your name in the annual membership campaign drawing. Congratulations to Tony Meyer with Xpress Printing for winning the gift basket at this past annual meeting. Tony received a basket filled with a variety of specialty products donated by OK members and beautifully packaged by Desert Harvest. Thanks again to all that donated the prizes, it was a beauty.
As always, if we can be of any assistance to you throughout the year, please contact me at 318-4650 or email at: susie@opp-knocks.org. I wish all of you the very best for 2005. May your businesses thrive, prosper and grow!
Susie Stevens,
Executive Director / Central Oregon Chairperson
Member of the Year 2004
Lee Barker
Barker Musical Instruments
www.barkerbass.com
OK 1
The first years of my OK participation were normal. Members came and went. Some left after a remarkable turnaround; some after realizing their small business dreams had cheerfully ignored the possibility that someone who cared could ask a question starting with "Last month, did you…" and expect a good answer. Others couldn't adjust their dollars earned per hour spent ratio to accommodate the long range benefits of OK membership.
I stayed because, every now and then, a shovel wielded by someone else would dig up a shiny nugget with my name on it.
By April of '03 I had decided to close my custom woodworking business - a 23 year endeavor - and launch a new product, the Barker Bass.
This musical instrument had come to me over time and the more I researched it and refined it the more I became convinced I had a unique product and a signature sound.
The day I came home and said, "I don't want to die saying I had a good idea and didn't try it" was the day I got a resounding affirmation from my wife Linda. As we optimistically and fearfully laid out our plans it was always clear that OK would be a key player. Like Lewis and Clark, we were headed out into uncharted territory.
OK 1 has reviewed printed material, explored outsourcing questions, urged bigger steps when I wanted to go slow, called me into account with the clarity of vision that astounds and delights the myopic entrepreneur, and, on a regular basis, encourages and celebrates as our little company moves forward.
Does OK work? Ask me any time. Especially when someone takes a look at a Barker Bass, shows the light of recognition, and says, "Oh yeah, they were talking about this at Nashville last summer!" Or when I'm standing on a stage, holding one of my instruments, talking to Nathan East (bass player for Eric Clapton, among others).
Yes, it is my last name on the eponymous instrument, but inside each one, attached to each sale, the subtext in every published review of the instrument, there are ten other names. Confidentiality prohibits my mentioning them specifically, but that's fine because you know of whom I speak.
OK SPONSOR PROFILE
Cascade Business News Evolves
Pamela Hulse Andrews
Jeff Martin
OK 14
Pamela Hulse Andrews, nearly a life-long resident of Oregon and a Portland city girl for more than two decades, came to Central Oregon in 1992 for a life-changing adventure. No job. No plans. Only a love of the region, a cowboy/talk show host husband (Andy Andrews), two dogs and just enough money to buy a ranch in Alfalfa.
Hulse Andrews settled in and began to remodel their hundred-year-old farmhouse. But the business world beckoned to the one time campaign manager and advertising executive. The economy seemed promising and to make a long story short: she wrote a business plan, went to the bank, the neighborhood banker liked the idea of a regional business newspaper, she hired her first staff, found a cozy office building and a publication was born.
First off the press on September 4, 1994, Cascade Business News has grown and prospered.
CBN stands by its motto: Enhancing and promoting the economic vitality of Central Oregon. In 1999 the business was awarded the coveted Governor's Small Business Award for Excellence.
Of Pamela's three sons, one, Jeff Martin decided to join the company in 1999 serving as vice president of marketing and sales. He is now a partner in the evolving business that has become a full-fledged publication company - Cascade Publications Inc. Jeff is also a member of the OK 14 team.
With a staff of twelve they publish Cascade Arts & Entertainment magazine (created by Hulse Andrews in 1995) and launched yet another unique magazine Cascade Discovery that is devoted to active and retired adults in Central Oregon.
OK FACILITATOR PROFILE
Larry Sirhall, President
LJ Sirhall Consulting LLC
Facilitator OK 21
What is your current business?
Sales, Customer Service and Marketing Consulting.
Today most of my time is dedicated to one client, Unicom, as their Director of Marketing. In addition, I'm a sales & marketing coach to several small business owners plus I'm developing a series of Customer Service and Sales Booklets.
How long have you been an OK Facilitator?
I started with OK in 1999 and I've facilitated one group the entire time: OK 21.
What have you enjoyed most about being a facilitator?
Three things come to mind:
a. The camaraderie of our group
b. The friends I've met during my 5+ years
in OK
c. The satisfaction derived from members
achieving tangible value through OK... you feel you've really
played a role in their business success.
What's the best advice you would give to an OK Member?
Commit the time and effort to participate, learn and share....and you (and your business) will definitely reap the rewards!
OK MEMBER PROFILE
Stephanie Miller, V.P. Operations
Express Personnel
OK 20
Describe your business:
Express Personnel Services is a complete human resource solution for companies. We have three divisions that we specialize in: Industrial, Office Services and Executive Search. In all aspects of our business, we strive to match the best-qualified employees with our Client Companies.
How long have you been a member of OK?
I have been in Opportunity Knocks for over two years.
What have you enjoyed most about OK?
What I enjoy most about Opportunity Knocks is that it allows me a chance to meet with a group of my peers on a professional level to strategize ways to increase my business and personal growth.
What is the top value you and your business have received from OK?
I believe that the value I have received from Opportunity Knocks is that it has improved my problem solving skills. I am able to learn from other people's critical issues before they happen to me and am prepared as they come up in my own office. From a company perspective, I believe that Express receives value from the strong business relationships I have made with members of the group. I am prone to work with companies that I have a connection to and I believe that the other members of the group feel the same way.
OK MEMBER PROFILE
Roger Lee, Director
Economic Development for Central Oregon
OK 26
Describe your business:
Economic Development for Central Oregon is a private, non-profit corporation founded 23 years ago by business and public leaders. EDCO attracts new, permanent primary jobs and capital investment to the tri-county region through marketing and recruitment, and also assists and supports the growth of existing businesses. Strategically, our efforts focus on primary employers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. EDCO is actively involved in helping companies with issues including workforce, real estate, financing, incentives, permitting, production efficiency and logistics. In the past decade, EDCO has played a key role in over 80 business development projects that have produced in excess of 2,500 new primary jobs in Central Oregon.
How long have you been a member of OK?
I joined OK in 2000.
What have you enjoyed most about OK?
The peer to peer discussions of common and unique business issues is the most interesting aspect of OK. This collective real-world experience is very valuable in dealing with challenges and making the most of opportunities in our own small corporation. Not surprisingly, my current and former OK team members are among those people I have the closest professional personal and professional relationships in the community. I also appreciate the frankness and honesty that is promoted within Opportunity Knocks. We Americans naturally tend to more superficial, and OK encourages members and facilitators to dig deeper to get at the root of issues of success or failure in business - motivations, financials, and strategic planning, etc.
What is the top value you and your business have received from OK?
EDCO frequently refers businesses, especially those new to the tri-county area, to get involved with Opportunity Knocks. That the organization was founded and continues to grow here in the region is the greatest value to our organization. I wonder what communities do that don't have OK chapters! By facilitating business owners and managers to help each other, hundreds of local businesses are healthier and more successful than they would be otherwise. This clearly supports our goal for greater economic security with Central Oregon.
OK MEMBER PROFILE
Duane Springer, Owner
Dewey's Wheelchairs for Dogs, Inc.
OK 10
Describe your business:
Dewey's Wheelchairs for Dogs provides mobility for dogs with rear leg problems. This would be for dogs with hip dysplasia, degenerative myleopathy, disk disease, ruptured or slip disc and spinal problems. Dewey's Wheelchairs for Dogs operates like a mail order business. Each order is custom built to fit any size of dog from a 3 lb. Chihuahua to a 180 lb. St. Bernard to include cats, goats and ferrets. I've had orders from around the globe but mostly in the states.
How long have you been a member of OK?
I have been a member of OK for six years.
What have you enjoyed most about OK?
What I have enjoyed most about OK is getting to know some very wonderful business people and what they have to offer through their years of experience. Through fellow members I have been enlightened with knowledge that helps me become a better business person.
What is the top value you and your business have received from OK?
When I started my business the only experience I had was from the outside looking in. I have since learned what it takes to operate a business to the highest degree. Having my own personal board of directors has helped me through numerous problems. I owe a lot to my OK group for becoming successful.
OK MEMBER PROFILE
JoAn Mann-Pearson, President
Prep Profile Systems
OK 3
Describe your business:
Established in Bend, OR, 1984, PREP offers management and HR Professional tools and services for making people decisions.
Our services include:
* Software reports for personality profiles
(PREP Personal Strengths Profile); job-, supervisor-,
team-matching; coaching.
* Training in team building, executive
coaching, career coaching, outplacement, leadership.
* Consultation in strategic human resources
planning.
How long have you been a member of OK?
Two years (but have been involved with OK and referring members to OK for eight years).
What have you enjoyed most about OK?
Getting practical feedback on small business ownership decisions that formerly were either solo decisions or made in conjunction with "hired guns" that didn't actually run businesses, were only expert consultants in a narrow field. Having a regular meeting time with follow through on each others' businesses adds a dimension of community and wisdom in the process of running a small business that is very gratifying. I also really enjoy being reminded of things that I should "know", since I coach others in business, but forget for myself!!
What is the top value you and your business have received from OK?
Challenges to my business model from highly respected and bright business colleagues. They have no vested interest in my business, but have the savvy and perspective to see the big picture when I am lost in the details the ways I have done things in the past and express this without judgment.
THANKS
Thanks to all of our OK business sponsors. Your financial support provides a major contribution in helping to make businesses in each of these communities a success.
Central Oregon Sponsors:
Alpine Internet
Bank of the Cascades
Bits
Brand Navigation
Cascade Business News
Columbia River Bank
Community First Bank
Contact Central, LLC
Press Pros
QB Pro, Inc.
US Bank
Washington Mutual Bank
Klamath Falls:
JELD-WEN
Klamath 1st
Pacific Power
South Valley Bank & Trust
Josephine County:
Liberty Bank
Lincoln County:
Wells Fargo Bank
West Coast Bank
Mid Willamette:
Pioneer Trust Bank
Umpqua Bank
South Coast:
The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
Southwestern Business Development Center
Other OK Chapters include:
Penticton, B.C., serving British Columbia.
Opportunity Knocks is serving the following communities in
Oregon: Central Oregon, Coos Bay/ South Coast, Salem/Mid
Willamette, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Grants Pass/Jackson
County, Medford/Josephine County, Lincoln County and Portland.
